Just the Beginning

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I can feel the hot South Florida sun burning down on my face and arms. The hot wind blowing as we roll down the highway. The smell of summer, the taste of summer, the days of summer. I spent so many in the back of Daddy’s truck. Here is a little tribute to that. I love you Daddy and wish I could share this with you!!

There are many times when I have thought I heard God calling me to do some certain things. Do I always say yes? I wish I did. The reality is that many times I have not. However, the times that I did have lead to huge things in my life and the lives of others.

As for saying no. Well, I don’t even want to think of how that has altered the path of mine or anyone else’s life.

I was an untraditonal college student finishing up my degree in education. I returned to school when my husband lost his job and was home with my children. It took me about 6 years to complete a four year degree. As I was about to graduate I was sitting at a stop sign on a beautiful afternoon. I felt a little drop into my spirit about my future as a teacher.

Because we lived in a small area that produced many teachers with few slots to place them I had wondered where I would teach and how I would know that I was in the right place. The drop in my spirit said,”I have a place for you and you will know to say yes because it will be offered to you. It will be the first offer. I also felt that it would be during the first year that I graduated.” I prayed that if I was misunderstanding that God would for sure close each door that I wasn’t meant to enter.

Several months later I graduated and began to apply for jobs. Door after door closed in my face. I finally took a long term sub job which actually payed more than a regular teaching job would. I thought this must be it. So I settled in and loved every day of it.

I began right in the beginning and would have it until the year’s end. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but this was God’s plan. In December my dad, who lived in Florida, became ill. We left and spent all of Christmas break with him. While there I decided just for kicks (or because God couldn’t get my attention) I applied at their schools. Not long after I returned home I got a call about coming down for a job fair. Hmmm, we were going down for Spring Break so I thought I might go.

The timing did not match up. I mean while we were on Spring Break so were they. The actual job fair was in May. If I wanted to do that I would have to fly down by myself to attend. So, what did I do? I said, “Yes.” Wow, that one little yes lead to more than I can tell.

This yes wasn’t easy. My husband had been born and raised in Kentucky for 39 years! He had never lived anywhere else and neither had my 3 children who were 8, 13, and 15 at the time. Everything stable in my life was in this same small town and I was scared to death to go back to Florida and risk losing it all. But I realized that it was God and I had to go. So we all packed up and moved. We were there for 5 years. My dad went to be with Jesus at the end of the fourth and moved about a year later. When I said, “Yes” to God again.

To begin with it lead to my first real teaching job (within the first year of my graduation) just as the Lord had spoken a year earlier. It also lead to a new beginning for my family to grow in the Lord and as a family. It allowed to the beginning of new life financially for us. We had gone from a family who received public assistance to a dual income family that had health insurance and everything else we needed and then some!

However, the most important thing that happened was that a life full of pain and strife between my dad and I was healed. My dad was saved and is resting safely in the arms of Jesus for eternity. There are many details about this journey not in here but I wanted to give a glimpse of what saying yes can do. Sometimes yes is hard and doesn’t make sense to anyone but God.